Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 338 Deductive Method

"That's enough, Sherlock."

As Dumbledore waved his wand, Peter Pettigrew immediately closed his eyes and fainted.

Clearly, he didn't intend to let Sherlock continue asking questions.

That's enough. If you keep asking like this, Snape's past will be exposed.

It is true that people who have taken truth serum do not lie.

However, if a person only has a superficial understanding of the truth, then what he says is what he believes to be the truth.

Unfortunately, matters concerning Snape were top secret, especially at this sensitive time when Voldemort could make a comeback at any moment, so Dumbledore had to be even more cautious.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at Sherlock with a sense of helplessness.

This young man is indeed remarkable. He managed to unravel the mystery by relying solely on the slightest clues, uncovering the truth that had been hidden for twelve years.

But it certainly doesn't make things easy for me.

If only Harry had that kind of wisdom.

Seeing Snape's almost fiery gaze, Dumbledore took a deep breath and immediately devised a plan.

"Sherlock, I also have a few questions I'd like to ask you. Could you answer them?"

“Without a doubt, Headmaster,” Sherlock looked at everyone and smiled with satisfaction, “this case that has troubled us for some time is finally over. Now, I welcome any questions you may have, and I will never refuse to answer them again.”

Seeing Sherlock adopting a question-and-answering posture, Dumbledore glanced at the other three professors and couldn't help but smile.

Who is the teacher and who is the student in our case?
However, he was magnanimous and didn't mind Sherlock's attitude, so he immediately posed the question:
"Although the facts have proven your reasoning, I'm curious to know how you knew that the mouse was Peter Pettigrew?"
"Based solely on Peter's severed finger and the spyoscope, it seems a bit far-fetched."

"Of course it's more than that."

Sherlock said leisurely, "I once told my good friend Harry that all seemingly unusual phenomena are usually not obstacles, but rather clues."

When solving these types of problems, the most important method is deductive reasoning, which involves using reasoning to backtrack layer by layer.

This skill is very useful, and it is also very easy in nature.

Unfortunately, most people tend to overlook this method in their daily lives, and even fewer are truly able to use it for reasoning.

Professor McGonagall frowned. "Sherlock, you might as well put it more clearly."

Sherlock smiled again. "Well, let me try to be as clear as possible:"
For most people, when they know a set of facts, their brains can connect those facts and deduce possible outcomes through thinking.

Conversely, even if they know the outcome, they cannot deduce how these things happened, and this is precisely what I call deductive reasoning.

Now let's review this incident again. It's not hard to see that Peter actually revealed enough clues.

As for the spy scope, as I said before, it's just the final piece of the puzzle.

Sherlock paused, then said in a matter-of-fact tone:
"As you know, Banban looks much older than her age, that's the first fact I have to face."

In the Muggle world, a mouse could never live that long.

After Ron returned from Egypt, he noticed that Scabbers was acting strangely, so we went to the Magical Pet Shop in Diagon Alley together.

The witch there told me that in the magical world, a rat like this wouldn't live more than three years.

Later, I asked its previous owners, Percy Weasley and Mr. Weasley, and they told me that Scabbers had come to their home a long time ago.

However, I had no preconceived notions at the time, so I naturally couldn't draw conclusions based on that.

Moreover, as Ron said, it could be forcibly explained that the Weasleys took good care of it.

But precisely starting this year, its condition has begun to decline sharply—that's the second fact.

Sherlock glanced at Peter, who had lost tens of pounds, and said coldly:

"After returning from Egypt, the mouse's weight started to drop continuously."

Ron initially thought it was just a case of the animal not adapting well to the environment, but he overlooked one crucial point: that timeframe coincided precisely with the time of Blake's escape.

When we were in first and second grade, this fat mouse did nothing but eat and sleep, and sometimes he would make a mess of Ron's sheets.

As I once explained to Harry: a person's habits often reveal their true self to the public. In criminal investigation, once someone exhibits behavior that is drastically different from their usual habits, it often means that a major breakthrough in the case is about to occur.

Although I didn't realize at the time that the rat was transformed from a human, this only increased my suspicions about it.

Until Crookshanks began targeting him again and again—that is precisely the third fact.

Sherlock reached out and stroked Crookshank's fluffy head in Hermione's arms, saying with a touch of emotion:

"It was the witch from that magical creature shop who told us that this cat has cat-like blood, which is why it can identify those wicked bastards!"

Ron stared wide-eyed at Crookshanks in Hermione's arms, unsure of what to say.

Not long ago, he had another argument with Hermione over this matter.

The two hadn't even spoken to each other until they entered the office.

"A cat-like creature..."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful.

The other three professors also looked at Crookshank in Hermione's arms with a somewhat peculiar gaze.

"The fourth fact is the detail that Professor Lupin told me: Peter was blown to pieces back then, and his mother received his remains with only one finger."

Coincidentally, Banban was also missing a claw.

More importantly, Ron told me that it looked exactly like this when his family got it.

Considering the warnings the spyglass gave in three different situations, and the fact that it wasn't damaged, I borrowed it from Harry to conduct a final test.

As expected, when I appeared next to Banban again with it, the speculum once again issued a warning. This is the fifth fact.

One or two wouldn't be so bad, but when countless coincidences overlap, I made a bold hypothesis.

Sherlock looked at Snape. "Remember that question, sir? What's the difference between a wolf transformed from Animagus and a regular werewolf?"

Snape was still bothered by Sherlock's question, so when Sherlock spoke up, he naturally retorted without holding back:

"Say what you want to say. If you don't want to say anything, then I suggest you shut your showy mouth, Sherlock Holmes!"

Sherlock was unfazed by Snape's hostile attitude. He shrugged and said, "It seems you remember very well that Animagus can freely choose when to transform, but werewolves cannot."

Snape felt as if he had punched cotton; he had the strength but nowhere to use it, which made him extremely frustrated.

Professor Lu Ping was quite embarrassed when he heard this question.

The main reason was that he hadn't expected that Sherlock would uncover his secret of being a werewolf while asking him questions.

Fortunately, all the faculty members already knew about this, and as for the four young wizards… judging from their expressions, they didn't seem to mind too much, which gave him some comfort. Sherlock, however, continued as if nothing had happened:

"So, my hypothesis is that Peter Pettigrew didn't die back then, but transformed into Scabbers through Animagus. This would explain a lot of things."

A pet mouse with an absurdly long lifespan.

Peter lost a finger, and Scabbers lost a claw.

As soon as Sirius Black escaped from prison, Scabbers' situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Crookshan repeatedly targeted Banban, and Banban's condition became increasingly abnormal.

Every time the speculum issued a warning, Banban happened to be there.

Based on these clues, and combined with the information I've been reviewing recently, the whole story becomes quite clear.

Everyone, including Snape who had just mocked Sherlock, watched intently as he slowly recounted the whole story:
"During their school years, Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin all attended Gryffindor House."

Due to their exceptional talent, they quickly became top students in their grade.

In particular, James and Sirius became prominent figures in the school within just a few years.

Because of their shared interests, they naturally became friends and formed a small group.

At that time, Peter Pettigrew's magical abilities were not as good as the three of them, but he idolized them and always followed them around.

In the end, the three decided to let him join the group.

Later, for some reason, James, Sirius, and Peter all taught themselves to become Animagus.

Upon hearing this, Lupin's lips moved, but he ultimately remained silent.

The three childhood friends chose the Animagus so that they could accompany them in their werewolf form.

Unexpectedly, times have changed. Of the four childhood friends, one died, one betrayed him, and one escaped from Azkaban after twelve years. Only he is still barely surviving.

"They each gave themselves a nickname. Peter's Animagus was depicted as a mouse, so his nickname was Wormtail."

However, none of his three friends realized that Peter Pettigrew was not as harmless as he usually appeared.

Even his magical talent was stronger than imagined, but it was overshadowed by the brilliance of James and Sirius.

This is perfectly reasonable; if one is not good enough, it is impossible to learn Animagus transformations.

Am I right, Professor McGonagall?

When Sherlock asked, Professor McGonagall slowly nodded:

"Yes, Animagus is the most profound form of transfiguration."

Because transformations could potentially lead to terrible mistakes, the Ministry of Magic has always maintained strict control over them.

A person who can become self-taught can definitely be called exceptionally talented.

She glanced at Peter, who was already unconscious, her expression complex.

She once thought that Peter was not on the same level as others in terms of talent, so she was often very strict with him in the past.

Later, after learning about Blake's "betrayal" and Peter's "sacrifice," she became very regretful.

But now... without her knowledge, she has actually trained three self-taught Animagus!
Her feelings became increasingly complicated, and she no longer knew what to say.

"Their student days ended just as the Wizarding Wars were taking place, which was also the period when Voldemort's power was at its strongest."

Influenced by his three friends, Peter also joined the Order of the Phoenix and became a member of the fight against Voldemort.

But he did it not willingly. Joining the Order of the Phoenix was partly to continue following powerful friends, and partly to gain the protection of a powerful force.

Therefore, he was not inherently loyal to the Order of the Phoenix.

Shortly after, Harry was born, and the Potters were hunted by Voldemort because of the prophecy.

Meanwhile, Voldemort chose Peter from among the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

It must be said that Voldemort had a very accurate eye for people.

Faced with his overwhelming strength and skillful manipulation of people's hearts, Peter surrendered almost immediately without much resistance.

He began gathering information for Voldemort, thus becoming a traitor to the Order of the Phoenix.

Mr. Dumbledore had already discovered this, but he couldn't determine who the traitor was.

Hearing this, Dumbledore sighed deeply. "You're absolutely right, Sherlock."

Severus was helping Voldemort at the time, and it was he who told me that there was a traitor in the Order of the Phoenix.

Unfortunately, we never imagined it would be Peter.

Dumbledore bringing this up at this time was clearly an attempt to cover up for Snape.

When Sherlock learned from Peter about the traitor to the Order of the Phoenix and Snape, the three young wizards besides Sherlock were all greatly surprised.

Even McGonagall and Lupin's expressions subtly changed.

Upon hearing Dumbledore's explanation, Snape couldn't help but sneer.

He doesn't need such an explanation, nor does he care about other people's misunderstandings.

You could even say it's better to be misunderstood.

But Dumbledore cared.

Most importantly, he didn't want Harry to harbor resentment towards Snape.

Sherlock nodded and continued, "Then came what Professor McGonagall told me last time: James, on Mr. Dumbledore's advice, used the Faithful Charm and chose Sirius Black as the Secret Keeper."

But to your surprise, at the last minute, Sirius persuaded James to change the Secret Service agent to Peter.

Normally there's nothing wrong with this approach, because compared to the eye-catching Sirius Black, Wormtail, who always follows them around school, is the least noticeable and goes unnoticed.

In order to achieve a surprise effect, he didn't even tell anyone about it.

Unfortunately, no one knew at the time that Peter was the one who betrayed the Order of the Phoenix.

Therefore, having unexpectedly become the Keeper of the Secret, he didn't hesitate to reveal the Potters' hiding place to Voldemort, leading to their deaths.

Professors McGonagall and Lupin couldn't help but let out a soft sigh. Snape looked at Peter, his eyes brimming with deep-seated hatred.

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(End of this chapter)